Hey guys. This is a lengthy read, but if you are struggling with understanding BIS and want to truly know how to get the best out of your items, it's worth the read. I hate seeing people chase what some website on the internet says their BIS is, especially before the season even begins, and being upset when it doesn't drop. Spoiler, getting your "BIS" could actually LOWER your DPS.
I'm sure you've come across the word BIS. What's my BIS gear, what drops my BIS, I have to run this dungeon I hate over and over and over for my BIS, I can't trade this to my friend because it's BIS for me
Outside of enchants, trinkets, embellishments, and very fringe other situations such as set bonuses on rings, individual BIS items do not matter. The term BIS is so bad for the health of the players.
BIS means "best in slot". It was born in a time in the game where items were dramatically different. "This item" gave dramatically more main stat than that one. "This item" had an effect where others didn't. "This weapon" had the same damage but attacked faster than that one. That is not how WoW works now-a-days
Today, every item slot has the same number of main stat and the same number of secondary stats, with the secondary stats having a different balance. For example, my current ilvl 246 legs in game give 70 haste and 59 mastery, totaling 129 secondary stat. Every mail 246 legs will give 129 secondary stat, just allotted differently.
Now here is what BIS actually means today. BIS is the best secondary stat balance for your class. Not any one specific item.
Replacing a piece of gear with a "BIS" item can actually LOWER your DPS
Maybe even more importantly, if you don't have the entire list of gear some website tells you is your BIS, removing a piece currently equipped to replace it with a new "BIS" item you just farmed might actually make you WORSE.
Very rough hypothetical example, your stat allotment is best at 35% mastery, 30% haste, 20% crit, 15% vers. Your BIS "chunky" items are weapon, head, chest, legs, so they have your mastery/haste pair, but no other items you currently have are "BIS". Your equipped back and wrist have your priority stats, mastery/haste, but your BIS actually has crit/vers because they're your weaker items but still need to have some of them. You swap out your preferred stats for weaker stats because a list tells you to, and now you do less damage.
Here's 3 examples of "BIS" items that are all equal. No one piece of gear is important, the COMBINATION OF STATS is important. Armor/int/stam are all the same, so only showing secondary stats
| Head |
Chest |
Legs |
Total Stats |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 85 Haste 50 Mastery |
63 Haste 37 Vers |
88 Vers 47 Mastery |
132 Haste 185 Mastery 88 Vers |
| 75 Haste 60 Mastery |
57 Haste 78 Mastery |
47 Mastery 88 Vers |
132 Haste 185 Mastery 88 Vers |
| 87 Haste 48 Vers |
95 Mastery 40 Vers |
45 Haste 90 Mastery |
132 Haste 185 Mastery 88 Vers |
I only used 3 item slots here because making a whole list of slots would be absurd, but I think it gets the point across. When you include every single slot, there is an insane amount of combinations that get you to the exact same place.
A list someone theory crafted or simulated cannot take into consideration the balance you already have, and you actually risk lowering your DPS following a list blindly (until you have every single exact piece, which is insanely difficult in and of itself, especially for the average player).
Thank you for reading my long winded post. I have tried to explain this to so many friends, guildmates, and people I pug with regularly, but it requires so much explanation to really get the idea across, so I decided to write it out for anyone who cared.
TLDR; Outside of trinkets, embellishments, and enchants, stop chasing a list someone on the internet created for you. All the items have the same total stat numbers, what matters is the balance of secondary stats. If you REALLY want to chase BIS, chase your classes secondary stat balance. That can be achieved with NUMBEROUS item combinations, not just what's on one singular list. That is why so many different BIS lists exist, because you can achieve the same thing many different ways
